A Practical Suggestion to Overcoming Initial Hurdles in Delivering A Wedding Speech

Sept. 26, 2009 - PRLog -- Now, Wikipedia has a description of public speaking, so this practical suggestion will not repeat its contents but only highlight what things you should do when chance has come, most probably not out of your personal desires, and you have been assigned the one-in-a-lifetime duty of delivering a wedding speech. Let's take a look at them.
Dress Code

“Well, doesn't it sound obvious?” you may ask. “Aren't people going to a wedding ceremony already limited in their choice of dresses to wear?” Yes, it's true that most wedding ceremonies require their attendees to follow some pre-established dress codes, usually suits for men and formal dresses for women. But it is also common for the organisers, the bride and groom, and their relatives to don some sort of uniform dress so that people will know that they are part of one big hosting team. (And in my experience, this kind of predisposition has allowed me easy inquiries into the location of a men's room: All I've had to do is spot someone in the uniform dress and ask him!)

If you are not a relative of either the bride or the groom and not a member of the organising committee (who has a clear job description for preparing and conducting the ceremony), your job of delivering a wedding speech makes you a quasi part of the wedding organisers. You need to be prepared to present yourself in their chosen uniform dress when there is one. If you have not been told so, you have to ask the person who invited and asked you if they wish for you to resemble the other members of the hosting team. Certainly, you wouldn't want to risk hurting their feelings by coming to the ceremony, standing up and rushing out your wedding speech in your Tarzan-like custom—when everyone else is in formal attire—forgetting that this wedding is neither a film shooting by an eccentric director nor an exotic party deep inside a tropical rainforest.

If you are female, it seems you will have more freedom than your male counterparts in choosing your dress. Still, you need to make sure with the wedding personnel that you won't have to put on a certain badge, ribbon, scarf or flower to give the impression that you are one of them. (http://www.brideheaven.com/index.php?p=Best_man_speech_-_...)

In short, as a person—in most cases, the only one in the ceremony—who delivers the wedding speech, you are somewhat part of at least the bride or the groom due to the nature of the speech. A wedding speech contains anecdotal accounts of either the bride or the groom, or both, so that the other guests—who you are trying to lead to eventually raise their goblets, cause them to ting and utter something like “Yea! Happy to Susan and Nauss!”—will have an acceptable reason for wishing the couple a happy-ever-after life. The guests will see that you, out of your closeness with the groom (or the bride), have rightful authority in telling about his or her most darling personality and campaigning for the couple's right in engaging themselves in such a union. So, when those guests see your outer appearance similar with the wedding organisers, they will subconsciously accept your argument and will be willing partners in toasting with you with all their might, “Hip hip..., Yea!”
Nervousness

speech image nervousness Many people get nervous when it comes to giving a public oration such as the wedding speech. Some people even get anxious, and still some, glossophobia. It's normal. The question is: “How do I handle this?”

If we observe meditatively, our nervousness in public speaking usually has to do with our prejudice of how others may judge us. Yes, speaking to an audience will to some extent entail the audience's impression of us. But if we can direct their attention fully to the anecdotes and charming personalities of the couple, they will easily forget who's giving the speech. So the trick is to keep your efforts and attention as fully as you expect from the audience in telling the story of two wonderful human beings who have fallen in love and found their half soul. After all, the wedding ceremony itself is the centre stage for the couple, isn't it? There should be no reason, therefore, to swap roles during the play; you are just a messenger. (http://www.brideheaven.com/index.php?p=Silver_wedding_fun...)

And how do you keep full efforts and attention? By preparing the speech in writing and practising it at least a couple of times the night before. Don't tell me you haven't done this kind of activity before. Don't tell me you haven't at least mentally thought of the words you would be giving in a speech and looked at yourself in the mirror while reciting them? If, for goodness' sakes, you truly haven't done this before, then you should come clean to your inviter and tell them that you do not qualify for the job because you are not old enough to have found someone who has swept your feet and made you do all kinds of crazy and silly things in order to snatch her heart and love, losing your rational thinking and making a fool out of yourself in the process. Go and tell your inviter you ain't the chap.

Consume a good amount of water as it has practically proven its usefulness as a calming agent in a human body. If you are keenly prone to nervousness, avoid coffee and other stimulant beverages, and be careful with your alcohol intake because “at low concentrations it can actually stimulate certain areas of the brain.” found on : http://www.brideheaven.com/index.php?p=How_to_Start_A_Speech

# # #

Francesco Vitetta has collected examples of every type of wedding speech and toast (as well as speeches for many other notable occasions). Francesco always adds new and different speeches to the database.